CONCLUSION

The relationship between women and security and the sexual violence experienced by women in the event of a war, which are examined theoretically in the previous chapters, are analyzed through the Bosnian case in this chapter. Bosnian war, which has the characteristics of a civil war, is a significant example in terms of exhibiting how women’s bodies are used as battlefield and how rape is used as a war tool. Sexual violence, which had attracted that much attention and gathered reaction for the first time ever in international area after Bosnian case, was examined by the Courts which were the first to investigate sexual violence crimes in the history.

Furthermore, the perspective should change primarily in a way to give more importance to women’ rights and to be more interested in women’s problems in order to remove the sexual violence which women experience in almost every armed conflict. Women’s body should not be used with the military or political aims in either peacetime or wartime. The most important point to be remembered is that rape is not an inevitable end but is a crime to be punished.

323 Tina R. Karkera, “International Criminal Court’s Protection of Women: The Hands of Justice at Work”, American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 197, (2004): 202.

324 Schneider, op.cit. (2007): 932-933.

325 The United Nations, “Background Information on Sexual Violence used as a Tool of War.” Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide and the United Nations, (Department of Public Information, April 2013): 2.

CONCLUSION

Security has been one of the most debated issues in the scope of IR discipline. Due to the changes in international system and world politics, the meaning of security has been also changing. The different theoretical perspectives of IR brought a new point of view towards the security issue. While the traditional perspectives adopt a more classical security perception which attaches more importance on state’s security, alternative perspectives go against the domination of state as the most important actor and domination of state’s security as the most important concern in the security studies. In this regard, they readdress the security concept by taking different actors and different issues at the center of their studies. From the perspective of alternative IR theories, human security should be given more importance instead of state security because states are composed of individuals and these individuals are exposed to several threats that may come from several aspects including the state itself. Therefore, as one of these alternative perspectives, feminist IR theory advocates the human security through using a gendered perspective. By wearing gendered lenses, feminist IR theory handles with the gendered structure of security concept and the security problems that individuals experience as a result of their gender.

In the first place, feminist perspective, which striving for the equality between men and women in every aspect of life without any discrimination, claims the exclusion of women from the issues related to security, war and military which are assumed so important that only men can should be taken into consideration. In such a masculine area of a masculine discipline, feminist IR attempts to make women visible by increasing their participation and effectiveness in the academic and institutional level in order to make women’s security problems heard. Because of the silence of women and the invisibility of women’s security problems, the discrimination, suppression and physical, psychological, economic or sexual violence that women experience in peacetime reach to more crucial levels in wartime. When the security problems that women experience in wartime continue to be neglected, the necessary steps to ensure women’s security and to provide them with treatment programs become impossible to be taken in post-wartime. By adopting this perception, feminist IR theory tries to eliminate security threats towards women in wartime through coping with the close

association between masculinity and war. One of the most important security threats for women during the wars appears as sexual and gender based violence, especially in the form of rape.

Feminist IR theory deals with the sexual and gender based violence by defining the concept, analyzing its underlying factors, observing its use in wars and explaining its effects on women in both wartime and post wartime processes. By defining the war as a competition between men to prove their masculinity, sexual and gender based violence is argued to serve to assert the superiority of one side’s men over the enemy side’s men through using female’s body. Therefore, SGBV in wartime is used not only for satisfying sexual desires of men as it is in peacetime but also for gaining political and military advantages over the enemy because not being able to protect their women from sexual assault of enemy undermines the manliness of this group’s men to be able to win the war. Although SGBV may take different forms during war, the most brutal form of it is rape, for certain. Feminist perspective, which differentiates the rape in peacetime and rape in wartime, claims wartime rape has political and military impulses that intensify the impact of rape on both women and the whole society. For both meeting sexual needs of soldiers during the wars by rewarding them with women, and also gain superiority over enemy by humiliating and threating them, rape has been used as an effective tactic in almost every war throughout the history.

While according to traditional perspectives, rape has been deemed as an ordinary process and inevitable result of wars, feminist perspective sees wartime rape as the most extreme example of masculinity of war. In this regard, the use of rape as a war tool in Bosnian war revealed the severity of this issue since this case became a turning point in terms of changing point of views toward the wartime rapes. The brutal violence, mass rapes and specially designed rape camps took the attention of academicians, politicians, non-governmental organizations, media and people all over the world to take action to prevent the use of rape in wartime.

It has been accepted that rape was used as a strategic war tool in Bosnian war with the intention of ethnic cleansing. Women who were regarded as the honor of family in peacetime became the honor of nation in wartime. Since the protection of women’s honor is the primary duties of men to prove their masculinity, the sexual assault of their

women led Bosnian Muslim men to question their masculinities, to demolish them psychologically and to humiliate them. In this war where women’s bodies turned into a battle field and rape became a weapon women were harmed by their reproductive ability which is the most specific feature of female gender. Since the continuity of an ethnic group is only possible to give birth to new members of this ethnicity and women are the provider of future generations, they take a holy responsibility in the sight of society.

When considering the historical hatred between Serbs and Bosniaks for centuries, to pollute the ethnic purity of enemy by impregnating their women appeared a reasonable way for Serbs in order to perform their ethnic cleansing project. In such a society where women are considered as the mother of nation and the honor of women means the honor of nation, rape served as a strategic tool and effective means to destroy social bonds, moral values and ethnic purity of Bosniaks. In this respect, when examined the reasons how sexual and gender based violence was used so effective that Bosnian war became a turning point to recognize wartime rape as a war crime and crime against humanity, patriarchal structure of Bosniaks can be argued as the most significant factor.

Therefore, this thesis aims to explain the use of sexual and gender based violence against women as a military strategy in wartime through the Bosnian case. For this aim, gender is used as a unit of analysis by using feminist IR theory in this study. The critical point of view of feminist perspective, which attaches importance to human security and especially to women’s security, towards the male-domination that is assumed to exist in the discipline of IR in general and in the concept of security in particular has been guiding for the thesis. The main research question of this thesis is how sexual and gender based violence was used as a strategic war tool in Bosnian war. In line with the main question, it is aimed to answer for sub questions which are how female’s bodies were used by Serbs to carry out ethnic cleansing against Bosniaks and what security threats that women are exposed to during the war and after the war.

In the light of the research questions guiding this study, it concludes that sexual and gender based violence was used as a war strategy in Bosnian war, as it is accepted by the discipline of IR and world public opinion. It is founded that women were turned into an object in this war where men of both sides were in a competition for asserting their masculinity and gaining superiority. In this competition, the use of gender-based sexual

violence was appeared as a reasonable way since the logic underlying SGBV is the sense of domination for perpetrator and the sense of humiliation for victim. When considered the historical dispute between two ethnic groups, which are Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims, sexual violence especially in the form of mass rape had capacity both to defeat enemy by demolishing their soldiers psychologically and also to pollute the ethnic purity of enemy group by forcibly impregnating their women. That the use of rape was intended to change the ethnic makeup of future generations of Bosnian Muslims revealed the fact that rape certainly served as a war strategy of Serbs and women’s body acted as a war zone with the intention of ethnic cleansing. Women who were associated with chastity, maternity and honor were exploited by gendered structure of war, which paved the way for permanent and irreparable outcomes on both women and all members of this specific ethnic group. Women faced with physical and psychological health problems, which were required professional treatment programs, as a result of rape. They experienced harsh economic conditions during the war and after the war as being responsible for the living of the family in the lack of their male family members. The inadequacy in services such as health, education and accommodation negatively affected women. The low level of women’s participation and presentation in political and judicial institutions in pre-war condition diminished even more in post-war period. Moreover, the sexual violence towards women continued after the war in cities or refugee camps due to the chaotic environment in post-war period and the downfall of judicial system of the country.

It is stated that Bosnian war became a turning point in terms of recognizing the wartime rape as a war crime and crime against humanity in the scope of international law. The brutality and cruelties occurring in Bosnian war attracted attention of individuals, organizations, academicians, politicians and media throughout the all regions of the world in order to take action for prevention the use of rape in wartime. The reason that Bosnian case aroused a considerable reaction towards the issue of wartime rape although rape had been used in almost every war throughout the history is the level of impact that rape caused not only women but also the whole society. Moreover, this thesis argued that the underlying factor for this impact took its source from the patriarchal structure of Bosniaks because of the value given to women, honor, family and ethnic purity in patriarchal structure. Since women are defined as the mother of

nation and honor of women are associated with honor of nation in patriarchal ideology, rape means depriving men of fulfilling their first duty which is to protect their women and it leads the exclusion and ostracization of women who are subjected to rape which puts the ethnic purity of next generations in danger.

Therefore, it is seen that rape serves not only as an act of violence but a means of patriarchal ideology for both sides of the war so as to perpetuate gender inequality in the society. For this reason, feminist perspective is essential for a more comprehensive and accurate analysis on issues regarding war and security in a gendered discipline. It may be provided women become more visible in the field of international security and women’s security issues are taken into consideration more owing to point of view and criticisms brought into the discipline of IR by feminist security theory. Unfortunately, it is a truth that Bosnian war is not the last case in which rape is used as a war tool.

Although, wartime rape was recognized in the literature of international law and legal institutions were founded to prosecute war crimes in order to prevent the use of rape in future, the cases Rwanda, Liberia, Chechnya, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote D’ivoire, and Syria reveal the necessity of readdressing and revising this issue through comprehensive analyses. Therefore, necessary political, legal and academic studies should be continued to prevent the use of wartime rape to properly ensure women’s security.

In this respect, for further researchs, recent cases in which rape and sexual violence are still used as a war tool should be studied by making a comparison between these cases and Bosnian case in order to understand the underlying social, cultural or ethnic factors that trigger men to use rape as a strategic tool. Such a study can contribute to get to the root of the problem to take more concrete steps to prevent the use of sexual violence and rape in wartime.

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